I am the middle child in my family with an older sister and a younger brother. They both struggled in school and demanded much of my mothers attention. My father was the authoritarian of the family and not someone to go to for extra help. I always knew that I was expected to get good grades and go on to college but making that happen was all up to me. As you can see, this did not end badly. I became a student that was self-motivated and determined to succeed. I did not get good grades for my parents or my teachers, I earned those grades for myself. I solved my own problems and I sought extra help from teachers on my own, what we now call self-advocacy. My parents in their own way helped me to discover how I learned best, what tricks and strategies worked for me, and how important doing my best was to me. I went on to college, earned my degree and became a pharmacist. Then I had my own family. While raising my daughters I rediscovered how much I enjoyed learning and I reawakened my desire to teach. We had book shelves piled high with story books and science books, picture books and chapter books. We played I-spy and the alphabet game. We practiced math skills by the pool. Then I started volunteering in their classrooms and my desire to teach became a yearning. Soon I was scheduling work around my volunteering instead of the other way around. I loved being at school. I loved working with the students and being part of that "light coming on" moment as they made that all important connection, but I was also by now a single mom with three kids and a mortgage. I started working more and volunteering less and before I knew it my girls were done with elementary school. My days as a classroom volunteer were over and now it was time to help my girls find and follow their dreams. I worked full time as a retail pharmacist and supported my children through many academic challenges and successes. Two years ago I went on a campus tour at Lesley University with my oldest daughter where she is now a student and we visited their curriculum library, I was enthralled and that old flame shimmered to life. This time I could not ignore it. I decided it was time to chase my dream.